On Wednesday morning, basking in the afterglow of having constructed a red wall that stopped the blue wave from sweeping away Republican control of the Senate, President Donald Trump tweeted the following:

“In all fairness, Nancy Pelosi deserves to be chosen speaker of the House by the Democrats. If they give her a hard time, perhaps we will add some Republican votes. She has earned this great honor!”

Virtually everyone, including the president’s former press secretary Sean Spicer thought the president was being sarcastic. Spicer appeared on Fox News that same day and called it an “epic troll.”

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For those who aren’t quite up on the latest internet slang, “trolling” is defined as putting a “deliberately provocative message” on the internet “with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.”

Now, there is no doubt that this president can troll with the best of them.

But in this case, he was being serious. How do I know this? First of all, because he said so at his epic 90-minute long news conference later that day.

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This news was largely drowned out by the equally epic rant of CNN “journalist” Jim Acosta, which ended with an undignified scuffling over control of the mic with a young White House intern.

But what the president said couldn’t have been clearer:

“I think she deserves it,” he said. “She’s fought long and hard, she’s a very capable person, and you have other people shooting at her trying to take over the speakership.”

He then revealed that in his conversation with Pelosi that morning, he had actually put this offer on the table: “I said, if it’s appropriate, I said if we can, if she has a problem I think I could very easily supply her the necessary votes.”

“That’s not said in any way other than I really believe she deserves that position. I also think that Nancy Pelosi and I can work together and get a lot of things done, along with Mitch (McConnell) and everybody else that we have to work with.”

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Why would the president want pro-abortion, anti-wall, ultra-liberal San Fran Nan as speaker of the House?

Because, as bad as she is, anyone who replaces her will be much, much worse.

Think about it. Would you — if you were Trump, prefer to have Adam Schiff as speaker of the House? Schiff has already vowed to continue the “Russian collusion” farce at least until the next presidential election, if not until the end of time.

Or perhaps you would prefer other leading Democrats, such as Jerry Nadler, who will become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and who announced to everyone on the Acela Express that he plans to devote all of his time to presiding over impeachment hearings.

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Add to this a bevy of younger, even more radically-minded members who are equally eager to make sure that one of their own will take the top spot. Some 60 members of her caucus have already publicly indicated that they would prefer someone else as speaker. Nancy Pelosi, at 78 years of age, was facing the political fight of her life.

Now, thanks to Trump’s timely intervention, she won’t have to.

Now, she can go to the progressives and say, in all truthfulness, that Trump has offered to help put together a bipartisan effort to give her the speakership. “If you desert me, he will herd enough Republicans across the aisle to more than make up the votes that you take away.”

This sobering thought will concentrate their minds — perhaps for the first time — and the planned rebellion will dissolve overnight. They will realize that abandoning their party would reduce their group of radicals to irrelevance.

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There will be a lot of subvocal grumbling on the part of those who fantasized about burning Washington to the ground in order to destroy Trump. But in the end, her fellow Democrats will unanimously re-elect her as speaker. Not a single Republican vote will be needed.

She will, in turn, owe Trump a great debt of gratitude. And whether you are a politician like Pelosi, or a businessman like Trump, you know that all such debts will one day be called in.

As an added bonus for the president, Pelosi just happens to be one of the most despised politicians in America today. In fact, her approval rating is only about half of the president’s.

That means Trump will not only have considerable leverage in private negotiations, he will also have the perfect foil for the public policy clashes that inevitably occur. It’s a win-win — for him.

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The man is a strategic genius.

If the angry mob that is the left-wing media ever stopped to think about Trump’s actions, instead of foaming at the mouth over some of his word choices, they would realize this.

I’m pretty sure that Nancy Pelosi does.

Steven W. Mosher is the president of the Population Research Institute, a former commissioner of the Commission on Broadcasting to China, and the author of numerous books on China, including his latest, “Bully of Asia: Why China’s Dream is the New Threat to World Order.”

The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website.